Zhou Xiufang, 72, is a retired teacher at Li Huili Primary School in Ningbo, Zhejiang.
At the age when he should have been living forever, Zhou Xiufang became a "love porter".
She went to remote mountainous areas such as Guizhou and Hunan to support education and help students. She also mobilized caring people to "carry" the love of tens of thousands of people to the depths of the mountains.
Benefit from others after dropping out of school
Vow to pass on love and knowledge
In 2014, Zhou Xiufang was 66 years old. She had retired for 10 years with a monthly retirement salary of 7,000 yuan. She was also hired as a teacher by a local private school with an annual salary of nearly 100,000 yuan.
Behind the easy life, Zhou Xiufang has a wish that has not been realized.
Zhou Xiufang originally had four brothers and sisters, and his kind parents also adopted two orphans.
In the third grade of elementary school, Zhou Xiufang faced dropping out. It was the head teacher who paid 3.5 yuan for her to let her return to school. She kept this in mind.
After graduating from junior high school, Zhou Xiufang worked as a babysitter to supplement the family.
The employer she serves is the principal of a school.
In two years, Zhou Xiufang taught herself the textbooks in the bookcase of her employer's home. In her own words, her university is a "nanny university."
It was also the experience of those two years that Zhou Xiufang became a substitute teacher in the 1970s.
She stayed on the podium until she retired.
Zhou Xiufang loves her career very much and vowed to "pass on love and knowledge to more children."
By chance, I decided to go deep into the mountains to support education
In 2014, Zhou Xiufang traveled to Qinghai.
During the trip, a college student told Zhou Xiufang that Guizhou needed a teacher for teaching support.
After calling Guizhou, Zhou Xiufang interrupted the trip and returned to Ningbo.
On August 15, 2014, Zhou Xiufang came to Manna Village Primary School in Huishui County, Qiannan Prefecture, Guizhou Province to teach.
During the field investigation and understanding, she found that the conditions of the Jiuxijiang Tonglin Primary School in Xupu County, Hunan Province were more difficult and needed more support.
In March 2015, she and her friend Sun Shaofu came here.
There was snow outside at the time, and Zhou Xiufang and Sun Shaofu lived in the peasant's house that was about to collapse.
Zhou Xiufang suffers from high blood pressure and rheumatoid arthritis. She can't stand her knees. Wearing knee pads and warm patches have no effect.
When she saw three-grade children in the room attending classes around the brazier, and an old man teaching the children in a dialect she could not understand, Zhou Xiufang immediately decided to stay.
"I put it on the window and listened. I want to stay. These kids need me."
Only 3.6 yuan left at the hardest time
"If I fall, bury me here"
A wooden bed, an induction cooker, and a suitcase are all Zhou Xiufang's belongings in Xupu, Hunan.
Zhou Xiufang suffers from hypertension and rheumatoid arthritis, and her knees often hurt.
The doctor advised her to change her knee, and Zhou Xiufang couldn't bear to spend 60,000 yuan.
But for the children, she is generous. When visiting impoverished students, she often sends school uniforms, quilts, stationery, books and other necessities for study and life, and also buys computers for the school.
She paired up with her son and daughter-in-law to support 16 poor students for a long time, and spent her "old-age money" to the fullest, often dealing with a meal with a bowl of rice or a plate of kimchi.
At the most difficult time, her salary card was only 3.6 yuan.
In order to understand the situation of the students, she tolerated the pain in her legs and walked from house to house on crutches for more than 8 hours.
Zhou Xiufang said: "I told my sons that if I fall here, I should be buried here. What I am doing now is meaningful and can help those children get out of the mountains and go to school."
"Teaching Grandma" makes love
"From one person to a group of people"
Zhou Xiufang felt that the power of the individual was limited after all. Only by gathering social forces and participating in supporting education can the situation here can be completely changed.
She posted the picture of Tonglin Primary School with text to WeChat Moments, which attracted a lot of attention.
After seeing Zhang Gang, a student and entrepreneur Zhou Xiufang taught in Ningbo in his early years, he rushed to the Tonglin Primary School and decided on the spot to invest 400,000 yuan to entrust Zhou Xiufang to rebuild the school.
Over the past four years, Zhou Xiufang has continuously "moved" the love of tens of thousands of citizens from Ningbo, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other places to Xupu Mountain, Hunan, and donated 29 Hope Primary Schools.
Among them, 19 have been completed and 10 are under construction.
Paired to help nearly 400 poor students, with a total donation of nearly 35 million yuan.
Zhou Xiufang also mobilized retired teachers, entrepreneurs and college students from Ningbo to come here to teach.
Now, Zhou Xiufang is 72 years old, and she said that her biggest gain is "comfort": for the support of everyone, and for the delivery of love, she will continue to be a "love porter".
Producer, Zhang Shifeng, Liu Bin, Ma Ye, reporter, Dong Qian, Planning, Meng Ke, Director, Shen Gongfu, Yang Fan, Liu Hongbo, Editing, Zhang Hongfei, Yu Zijing